


Eye of the Storm

by WildWolf25



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Comfort, Fluff, Gen, Platonic Cuddling, Sharing a Bed, Shippy if you Squint, Thunderstorms, the T rating is only for a couple of F-bombs... other than that it is pretty much G
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-27
Updated: 2020-05-27
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:07:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24398488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WildWolf25/pseuds/WildWolf25
Summary: Jason shrugged and headed back to his bunk.  “Well, I can’t stop my dad from making it storm anymore than you can stop yours from keeping souls in the underworld.  So you better figure out something else, or get comfy staying up all night to wait out the storm.”“You’re useless,” Nico muttered darkly.  He paused, then tilted his head and studied Jason as he got settled in bed again.  “Or maybe not…”“Hm?”“Zeus wouldn’t send a thunderbolt at his own son, right?” Nico said.  “So if I stay here, I’d be fine.”“Zeus, Jupiter, whatever,” Jason yawned again.  “Neither is particularly fatherly.  I doubt he’d care if I ended up in the path of a thunderbolt.”  He’d faced death too many times to put much hope in the mercy of the Gods, even those he shared blood with.“Shut up,” Nico grumbled.  “I bet he would care.  At least a little bit.  So you’re like, a reverse lightning rod.  Anywhere near you is safe.”“If you say so,” Jason said.  Frankly, he thought this cabin itself was more safe than he was -- the god of the skies did like anything dedicated to him.“So… if I just stick near you, no way I’ll end up getting fried to a crisp by lightning,” Nico went on.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 41





	Eye of the Storm

Jason didn’t really notice the thunderstorm outside. He knew it was there, but in a distant sort of way. He wasn’t bothered by the howling wind or the lightning forking across the sky or the rain lashing at the window of Cabin 1. He had never been scared of thunderstorms, even as a kid. Slightly annoyed, perhaps, but that was it. Must have had something to do with his father being the one controlling the storms. Even if he resented the guy most of the time, he didn’t necessarily fear him. And, frankly, he just valued his sleep more. So he didn’t bother lifting his head even as he heard the wind and rain pound at the door to the cabin. 

“Grace! Open the fuck up!” A voice yelled, and Jason realized it wasn’t  _ just  _ the wind pounding at his door. He picked his head up, wondering if he was still dreaming ー his watch propped on the corner of his mattress said it was quarter past two in the morning ー before the banging got more insistent. “Open this door or I swear to fuck I’ll shadow-travel inside! Hurry up!” 

Jason groaned and pulled himself out of bed. There was only one person foul-mouthed enough to be yelling things like that at this ungodly hour. 

Sure enough, he opened the door to find one Nico di Angelo on the front step, arms crossed and glaring up at him from between the soaked strands of hair plastered to his head. 

Jason arched an eyebrow. “‘Swear to fuck’?” he quoted flatly. 

“Well I can’t swear to the gods without them getting pissed about it.” Nico pushed his way inside, dripping all over the marble floor. 

“Fair point,” Jason acknowledged and shut the door, quieting the howling storm outside. “So, you need something?” 

“Yeah.” Nico crossed his arms and glared up at him. He was clearly still disgruntled Jason was still taller even after Nico’s growth spurt. “I need you to cut this shit out and stop fucking with the weather.” 

“It’s not me,” Jason said through a yawn. “I was sleeping.”

“Then tell your dad to cut it out,” Nico pressed. 

Jason tossed him a flat, unimpressed look. “Would you tell  _ your  _ dad to cut something out?” He asked. 

That made Nico pause. His mouth twisted into a thin line and he looked like he wanted to argue, but a sudden thunderclap outside made him jump and his head snapped over towards the window, eyes wide and shoulders drawn up nearly to his ears. 

Jason blinked, the realization taking a moment to filter in through the sleep still clinging to the edges of his mind. “Nico, are you afraid of thunderstorms?” He asked.

Nico’s head snapped back to glare at him, his dark eyes suddenly flashing like they were filled with the fires of hell itself. “I’m not  _ afraid _ ,” Nico spat. “I just… can’t sleep with all the noise.”

“Pretty sure someone around here has earplugs,” Jason said. They were almost a necessity for any cabin that was situated anywhere remotely near the Hephaestus kids’ forge or the prank-prone Hermes cabin. 

Nico clenched his hands, and as another flash of lightning lit up the cabin for a moment, Jason caught a glimpse of goosebumps pebbling his skin. “The only thing that’s gonna help is if the storm stops,” he said. “It’s too damn loud for earplugs.”

Or, it wasn’t really the noise that bothered him, Jason thought. 

He shrugged and headed back to his bunk. “Well, I can’t stop my dad from making it storm anymore than you can stop yours from keeping souls in the underworld. So you better figure out something else, or get comfy staying up all night to wait out the storm.”

“You’re useless,” Nico muttered darkly. He paused, then tilted his head and studied Jason as he got settled in bed again. “Or maybe not…”

“Hm?”

“Zeus wouldn’t send a thunderbolt at his own son, right?” Nico said. “So if I stay here, I’d be fine.”

“Zeus, Jupiter, whatever,” Jason yawned again. “Neither is particularly fatherly. I doubt he’d care if I ended up in the path of a thunderbolt.” He’d faced death too many times to put much hope in the mercy of the Gods, even those he shared blood with.

“Shut up,” Nico grumbled. “I bet he would care. At least a little bit. So you’re like, a reverse lightning rod. Anywhere near you is safe.” 

“If you say so,” Jason said. Frankly, he thought this cabin itself was more safe than he was -- the god of the skies did like anything dedicated to him.

“So… if I just stick near you, no way I’ll end up getting fried to a crisp by lightning,” Nico went on. 

“Mm.” Jason grunted, already slipping off towards sleep again. 

He heard two wet  _ thunk _ s from near the door that sounded like shoes being shucked off, then some rustling and moving around the cabin behind him. Jason figured that meant Nico would be bunking down in one of the other beds ー there weren’t many, given the Big Three’s pact not to have demigod children, so Thalia’s bunk and Jason’s had been moved into the marble hall when each had come to Camp Half-Blood. He assumed Nico would flop down in Thalia’s empty bunk, but instead, he felt his own mattress dip and the weight of a body settle on top of the blankets behind him. 

Jason lifted his head and looked over his shoulder, and found Nico laying behind him on his side, facing away from him, perched right on the edge of the bed on top of the blankets. “Can I help you?” Jason asked, confused.

“Well I can’t sleep in your sister’s bed ー I’m not getting my ass kicked by her and her Hunter buddies ー and the floor is fucking freezing,” Nico grumbled. “Besides, the closer I am to you, the less chance of getting electrocuted.” Pressed back-to-back like this, Jason felt him flinch as another bolt of lightning lit up the cabin. 

Jason sighed and scooted closer to the wall to make more room, but ended up rolling onto his back when he nearly hit his forehead on the wall. “Well, might as well just get under the blankets, if you’re gonna stay here. This cabin is cold.” 

“Who builds a  _ camp cabin _ out of freaking  _ marble _ ?” Nico grumbled as he pushed his feet under the blanket. His toes just barely missed him, but Jason could still feel the chill like icicles passing by. 

“Someone who planned on it being more of an honorary temple than a place where people actually live.” Jason glanced at the towering marble statue of Zeus that took up most of the cabin’s floorspace. He shifted his gaze a bit lower, to the back of Nico’s head where it was resting on the mattress beside the pillow. He reached under his own head and pushed the pillow back until it bumped against his hair. “Here.” 

“I’m not gonna just barge in and take all your bedding and stuff.” Nico ducked his head to his chest to avoid the pillow.

_ But you literally already did?  _ Jason thought privately as he looked up at the mosaic-covered ceiling above them. He chose not to mention that demanding entrance to one’s cabin late at night and climbing into their bed was essentially ‘ _ barging in and stealing their bedding’ _ . What he said, though, was “I offered. It’s fine.” 

A few minutes later, Nico shifted his head to lay on the very corner of the pillow. Even though Jason had been tired, he couldn’t seem to get to sleep now that he had a tense, visibly-uncomfortable bedmate beside him (even if said bedmate was pointedly refusing to let any part of them touch). Jason couldn’t help but notice the way Nico flinched as another roll of thunder crashed over the sky and the windows rattled with the force of the pelting rain. 

“How long do you think the storm will last?” Nico asked quietly. 

“No clue,” Jason replied, closing his eyes.

“Don’t kids of Zeus have like, a built-in weather barometer?” 

Jason snorted. “If that’s my dad controlling the storm, his power far outstrips mine. Can’t help you, buddy.” 

Nico flopped onto his back with a groan and frowned up at the ceiling, clearly disgruntled. Suddenly a flash of lightning lit up the sky and the thunder rolled over them so loud it was as if Zeus’s bolt had been thrown right outside the window. The very air was charged with a frightening sort of electricity. Frightening to anyone but Jason, who could tell that the lightning hadn’t actually struck anything. Jason fought the urge to roll his eyes; Mr. D might be the patron of theatrics, but his dad could certainly give the other god a run for his money in terms of dramatic displays of power. 

On the other hand, Nico jumped beside him and his hand flew to his mouth, though he tried to pass it off as scrubbing his hand through his hair. He muttered something darkly in Italian that Jason didn’t catch, nor would he understand, but he got the sense it wasn’t anything about sunshine and rainbows. Or maybe it was  _ wishing  _ for sunshine and rainbows. But knowing Nico, it was probably several curse words strung together. 

When a huge gust of wind knocked something over outside the cabin with a loud  _ BANG  _ and the rain beat so hard against the glass it threatened to shatter, though, Nico finally gave up and rolled over to shuffle closer to Jason. “That was too fucking close…” he grumbled, shaking his head. His hands were shaking too, but Jason doubted that was voluntary. Nico grabbed his upper arm. “Reverse lightning rod,” he muttered in explanation. 

Again, Jason chose not to mention how even he probably wasn’t immune to getting struck by lightning. Whatever would make Nico feel better about the situation. But with the way Nico’s fingernails were digging into his bicep, there was no way either of them would be getting to sleep anytime soon. 

Jason extricated his arm from Nico’s grip (a Herculean task, considering how tight he was hanging on) and turned onto his side to face the son of Hades before looping an arm around him and drawing him close. “It’s just rain. It can’t hurt you,” he murmured, wrapping his arms around him and settling them both down. 

“Yeah it can,” Nico grumbled. “Rain can cause floods. Mudslides.” 

“We’re on top of a hill,” Jason pointed out.

“And it destroys crops.” 

“I’m sure the Demeter kids can handle it.” 

“Lightning.” 

“You have more chance of getting in a car crash than you do getting struck by lightning.” Jason huffed. “And yes, that’s including the lack of cars here at camp.”

“Thunder.”

“Thunder can’t actually hurt you.”

“It’s loud.” 

Jason paused at the small, anxious thread of fear in his voice. He couldn’t really deny that, or reason it away. And just because he himself wasn’t afraid of the thunder didn’t mean he had never been afraid of anything before. He knew what it was like to be frightened of something far outside his or any other earthly beings’ control. 

He tightened his arms around Nico. “I’ve got you,” he said softly. 

Nico flinched at yet another thunderclap, and he was pressed so close that his nose brushed Jason’s chest. “I’m not scared,” he muttered, defiant. 

“I know.” Jason didn’t know if it did any good, but he sent a fervent thought his father’s way saying that ‘ _ hey, that storm has been here a reasonable amount of time, maybe keep it moving along? Thanks’ _ . 

Predictably, his dad paid him no attention (when did he ever?) and the storm continued to rage on all through the night. It was hard to sleep with the younger demigod clinging to him tighter than an enamored satyr on a dryad. Nico jumped at every flash of lightning, every thunderclap, every ghostly howl of the wind outside the cabin… Eventually, probably out of sheer fatigue and simple desire to finally get back to sleep, Jason started rubbing his hand up and down the length of Nico’s back in an attempt to soothe him. He didn’t even realize he was doing it, at first, and nearly yanked his hand back when he came out of a daze and noticed the movement. But he looked down and realized that Nico had finally,  _ finally  _ managed to doze off. Jason resumed the movement, lest he disturb the young man and cause him to wake up for another hour of restless flinching at the weather. 

It was strange, he thought as he himself drifted somewhere between awake and asleep, that he found himself surprised by the warmth of the body hugging his own. He had always assumed the son of Hades was naturally cold like the corpses that went to his father’s domain, cold in a way that would match his chilly and prickly personality. And he had been quite cold when he had first ducked under the blankets, probably from the wintery chill that still clung to the early-spring wind. His fingers were cold where they were twisted into the back of Jason’s shirt, and his toes were like icicles against Jason’s legs, but his back was warm under Jason’s steadily moving hand, even through his t-shirt, and his leg was warm where he had shoved it between Jason’s in his sleep. His face, hidden in Jason’s chest, was very warm, and although his breathing was still slow and measured, Jason had to wonder if he was actually asleep. Could people blush in their sleep? Jason wondered as he squinted through the dark at what he could see of Nico’s ear. It looked pink. Maybe it was just from him warming up to a temperature that was more appropriate for a human being and not a corpse. He shrugged off the thought and pulled the smaller demigod closer to tuck him safely under his chin before drifting off to sleep himself. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Please let me know if you enjoyed it. I'm also on [tumblr](https://gold-leeaf.tumblr.com) (^_^)


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